Out-of-the-box CRM fits long selling cycle

With sales cycles extending out as long as two years, GTI Technologies needed more than it had to contact customers and suppliers. Its business—supplying manufacturing equipment to semiconductor, automotive, and metalworking companies—requires repeated contact and extensive documentation on complex assemblies.

In other words, GTI had outgrown its TeleMagic contact management application, which was "just a fancy Rolodex," according to Patrick Frei, sales manager for semiconductor products at Shelton, Conn.-based GTI. The company wanted a CRM system "that would allow us to add information, attach spreadsheets and specifications, and track contacts—phone calls, faxes, and especially e-mail—for customers including Motorola, Intel, IBM, and automotive manufacturers," says Frei.

GTI also needed portability—"Something we could put onto a laptop and take with us, and that would automatically update when we got back to the office," Frei explains.

Although initially leery of an out-of-the-box application, Frei picked Microsoft CRM 1.0 because it was familiar—based on use of other Microsoft applications—and easy to use. But GTI needed customization.

"The CRM application already could do 95 percent of what GTI asked for right out of the box," says Bob Peskin, a project manager at Infinity Info Systems, a New York City-based CRM consultancy. "The only addition needed was a numbering system for quotes, as GTI chose not to implement Microsoft CRM's inventory and estimating module."

Infinity, which consults to nearly 30 manufacturing clients a year, says many small and medium-size enterprises "are using outdated versions of CRM software because they don't have the resources or time to update them," says Carter Hinckley, Infinity's director of strategic accounts.